Scarcity of physical space has become a fact of life in our crowded modern society. As a result, it has become important to maximize usage of physical space resources in situations involving everything from airplane seating and cargo space to hospital bed availability. One area where a scarcity of physical space has become a challenge relates to parking. For example, for individuals who drive their own vehicles as transportation, finding available parking spaces may be a major inconvenience if their destinations lack ample parking. To make matters worse, if a destination is a workplace at which the individuals must recurrently park in order to go to work, this inconvenience may not only aggravate the individuals, but may also become a major source of lost productivity as workers spend time searching for available parking spaces rather than performing productive work.
At the same time, providing excess parking spaces may be a poor use of limited resources. Particularly in expensive geographical areas where real estate is at a premium, providing more parking spaces than is necessary may be equally or more wasteful, from a fiscal point of view, than the lost productivity and/or ill will that may result from forcing drivers to spend significant effort searching for parking spaces.